Roth: Pressler's Job Change Made Big Difference

May 26, 2005

by John Roth, Blue Devil Weekly

Duke lacrosse coach Mike Pressler has made all the right moves in guiding his Blue Devils to a No. 2 national ranking and a trip to the NCAA final four this week.

But one of his most important yet least heralded moves came way back in September, before this year's team even began fall practice. That's when Pressler switched jobs with his associate head coach, Joe Alberici.

Pressler had run the defense for the entirety of his 14 years at Duke, as well as his previous stops at Ohio Wesleyan, Army and VMI. Alberici, in his ninth season, had been the Blue Devils' offensive coordinator. Pressler decided to change those assignments this year. He took over the offense and gave Alberici the defense.

And the team reacted by putting together the best season in school history. The Devils will carry a 16-2 record to Philadelphia this Saturday for an NCAA semifinal date with Maryland. Virginia and Johns Hopkins meet in the other semi.

"Joe's done a great job and our offense has been playing well," Pressler said. "For me it was like a jump-start after doing something one way for so long, because we have a lot of young offensive players this year. "And I thought it was a great move for Joe professionally as he moves forward toward being a head coach some day, for him to change over. As coaches we're all creatures of habit and for us to make that switch and have the players buy into it immediately, it's bearing fruit."

That fruit was ripe for the picking in the Blue Devils' NCAA opener. Duke rifled the Stags of Fairfield 23-4, with the offense scoring more goals than any previous Blue Devil team in postseason play, while the defense thoroughly subdued the visitors at Koskinen Stadium. Then in the quarterfinals, Duke topped Cornell 11-8 to reach the final four for the second time in school history.

Duke entered the tournament as the nation's top scoring team with an average of almost 13 goals per game. The offense has been paced all year by a trio of explosive starting attackmen in Matt Danowski, Dan Flannery and Zack Greer. They combined for 12 goals and nine assists against Fairfield, and 10 of the 11 goals against Cornell.

Danowski, the third Duke player to be named ACC player of the year, had five goals in each game. Greer, the ACC rookie of the year, had three goals in each contest. Flannery, the only one of the three left off the All-ACC team, combined for six goals in the first two NCAA contests. For the season, all three have topped the 60-point mark, the first time that's happened in school history. Greer has scored a team-best 53 goals to tie John Fay's school record and is just three off the ACC mark.

Alberici's defense, meanwhile, has been aided greatly by the presence of goalie Aaron Fenton, who made the All-ACC team and the All-ACC Tournament squad. Fenton played in one game his first three years combined, before earning the starting job last season. His decision to come back for a fifth year has proved integral to Duke's defensive success. "He's just had a great year," said Pressler.

Against Fairfield, Fenton yielded only two goals and made 12 saves in 45 minutes, before giving way to Dan Loftus for the fourth quarter. The Stags struck first by scoring a goal in the first seven seconds of play but Duke answered quickly -- with 16 unanswered goals to take a 16-1 halftime lead. Fenton then had 12 more saves in the Cornell game.

Sophomore midfielder Peter Lamade supported his attack by contributing three goals and three assists in the NCAA opener, underscoring the firepower Duke possesses with its starting front line and midfield. "When we put our first six offensive players on the field, we can hit you with six different guys," Pressler noted.

The Fairfield win enabled Duke to finish 10-0 at home this year. The Cornell victory was even bigger. It gave the Devils win No. 16 on the season, tying the NCAA Division I record for most wins. Duke also matched the biggest turnaround from one season to the next in Division I lacrosse history, with an 11-game improvement. The Devils won just five contests last year.

Playing a schedule loaded with landmines, the Blue Devils' only two losses have come in Baltimore. They dropped a showdown at top-ranked Johns Hopkins in overtime on Apr. 8 and fell in the ACC championship match to Maryland on May 1 at the home field of the NFL's Ravens. That was a rare off-day for the Duke attack, but the Devils were back to rapidly moving the ball around the field with a dizzying display in NCAA play.

After not making the tournament the last two years, the Devils have returned in a big way. And the only two teams to defeat them this season join them for the semifinals in Philly. Pressler, whose coach of the year award gave the Blue Devils a sweep of the ACC individual honors, previously took Duke to the national semifinals in 1997. He also coached in the Division III final four all five of his seasons at Ohio Wesleyan.